Chef Tyler Kord's 7 Steps to Sandwich Success

Chef Tyler Kord, the founder of NYC’s No. 7 Sub sandwich shop and author of A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches, is serious about lunch but doesn’t take himself too seriously. His rules? No rules! “I like all sandwiches!” he says. He did, however, come up with seven anti-rules for stacking tasty things between two pieces of bread.

1. Feed your inner child

“Let’s not mess with bologna and cheese. You could make it with mortadella and cheddar, if you’d like. And it’s hard to improve on PB&J, but I attempt to by spreading creamy peanut butter on a potato roll and adding thinly sliced celery and fresh raspberries. It’s PB&J meets ants on a log.”

2. Hamburger buns aren’t just for burgers

“I make sandwiches with whatever bread I have in the house— usually Arnold’s hamburger buns. I suppose I could freeze good bread and then defrost it in the toaster, but I don’t for two reasons. One, I don’t own a toaster. Two, my freezer is too full of dumplings.”

3. Soggy things are good

“Everybody talks about preventing soggy bread, but I love it. A roast beef sandwich drowning in its own juices is the best. You could mimic a French dip at work by packing a container of beef broth separate from your roast beef sandwich and dunking at your desk.”

4. Maple syrup is a friend of sandwiches

“In general, as a flavor, sweet is overlooked.I mix maple syrup into dijon mustard, or use spicy honey or maple syrup with fried chicken, or just drizzle it right onto almost any sandwich.”

5. Fresh produce is overrated

“I salt and drain cucumbers before putting them on a sandwich. I marinate subpar tomatoes in maple syrup and a splash of vinegar. At No. 7 we make ‘pico de lettuce’ by dressing romaine so that it wilts a little. We can fit a whole head of lettuce on a sandwich that way.”

6. There’s just one must-have “condiment”

“I could live without condiments. I’m pretty resourceful. Wait, is salt a condiment? I can’t live without salt. I sprinkle coarse salt on every sandwich.”

7. There are no pet peeves in sandwich making

“I was going to say that buttered and griddled sandwiches are a pet peeve, but what was I thinking? Those are the best. What’s not to like about sandwiches?”